(Recommended reading: Hanlin Yuan is a civil official yamen, which is naturally located behind the high wall of the east thousand-step corridor in the imperial city, adjacent to the yamen of the Ministry of Officials, the Ministry of Households, and the Ministry of Rites.

On the morning of March 25, Li Hongyu, Zhao Xin, and Zhuang Jichang entered the imperial city together and went to the Hanlin Academy to meet Wang Han, a bachelor of the Hanlin Academy.

Wang Han is the second class jinshi of the Yichou family in the seventeenth year of Wanli, because Shu Jishi was able to point into Hanlin, although the Hanlin bachelor is only an official position of the fifth grade, but Wang Han has the title of the right waiter of the Ministry of Rites, so his official rank is the third grade.

Don't look at Wang Han now he is only a bachelor of Hanlin, once he is promoted, he will be a court official of all major ministries and courts, and his career is unlimited.

Wang Han naturally had already read the answer sheets of Li Hongyu's three-person examination and the palace examination, and thought that the high cultural attainments of the three people were rare for decades, so he attached great importance to the three-person instrument.

Especially the question that Li Hongyudian tried to ask, "Ask the emperor's government and the emperor's heart?" The answer was full of anger, which made Wang Han can't help but be amazed.

Unlike the Qing Dynasty, where the Hanlin Dynasty was a civil official, the Hanlin of the Ming Dynasty was in charge of both literature and government affairs.

In addition to compiling the history of the country, recording the emperor's words and deeds, giving the emperor a lecture on the history of the scriptures, and writing holy decrees, the Hanlin people were also the leaders of the Qingliu of the court, the head of the Taoist officials, the top people of the great Ming scholars, and the close attendants of the Son of Heaven who everyone in the court envied.

After meeting Wang Han, Li Hongyu and the three went to see the colleagues of the Hanlin Academy, because the three of them were hand-picked by the Wanli Emperor, they naturally had a higher status than those Hanlin who were born in the Jishi, and the articles on the examination and the palace examination were written in a variety of flowers, so they were naturally welcomed by the colleagues of the Hanlin Academy.

Different from the other yamen of the Ming Dynasty, the Hanlin of the Hanlin Academy has a very heavy scribe atmosphere, as the two leaders of the Jinshi background, the Hanlin are all proficient in scripture and history, full of poetry and books, worthy of the people at the top of the pyramid of the Ming scholar class.

Therefore, it is much easier to deal with the Hanlin of the Hanlin Academy, most of the Hanlin have a very heavy scholarly atmosphere, and the personality is distinct, so there are far fewer things of deceit, falsehood and wrongdoing than the yamen of other ministries and courts.

After walking around the Hanlin Courtyard and worshipping the docks of the Hanlin Courtyard in the Hanlin Courtyard, Li Hongyu, Zhao Xin and Zhuang Jichang set off into the palace to greet the Wanli Emperor and thank the Wanli Emperor for selecting him as the Sanding Jia.

Forbidden City, Qianqing Palace, East Warm Pavilion.

Unlike Zhuang Jichang, who came to the Qianqing Palace for the first time, Li Hongyu and Zhao Xin had come to Dongnuan Pavilion for the second time, so they seemed to be a little familiar, and went to the wing room of the side hall with the inner servants to wait for the summons of Emperor Wanli.

At this time, the Wanli Emperor was summoning the Chinese Wu ministers of the imperial court to discuss the affairs of Liaodong in the Dongnuan Pavilion, and in addition to sending people to Huguang to send a decree to Xiong Tingbi, who was idle at home, so that he could quickly enter Beijing, he also had to transfer troops from the important towns of the Nine Sides and several capital divisions and Xingdu divisions in the north to support Liaodong.

For the defeat of the war in Liaodong, Emperor Wanli was shocked and angry, thinking that he had won the three major expeditions that year, how could he let the little Jianzhou Jurchen lose face?

However, there is an insurmountable problem in front of the Wanli Emperor, that is, the financial constraints, the empty treasury, and the internal treasury does not have much money.

The reason why the Ming treasury is empty is not that the people of the Ming Dynasty are poor and the market is depressed, on the contrary, the wealth of the people of the Ming Dynasty is far greater than that of the previous dynasty, and the market is extremely prosperous compared with the previous dynasty.

Speaking of which, the annual tax collected by the treasury of the Ming Household Department is only three or four million taels, which has a great relationship with the founding Emperor Hongwu.

As we all know, Emperor Hongwu was born poor, so after ascending the throne, he was very considerate of the suffering of the common people, and all taxes were set very low.

For example, the commercial tax was 30 tax 1, Wanli time was reduced to 60 tax 1, and the field endowment was originally 3 to 4 buckets per mu, and later it was reduced to one mu and one bucket.

Perhaps because of the unbearable experience of not having enough to eat in the past, Emperor Hongwu advocated the concept of self-sufficiency very much, so the Ming Dynasty had a garrison system, and he hoped to feed the soldiers in the guard through the military households without bothering the people.

In addition, Emperor Hongwu also made a major political decision, that is, the implementation of two sets of local and central tax systems, that is, the local tax revenue is at the disposal of the local yamen, and is used for the expenditure of the local yamen, mainly the field tax, which is managed by the local political envoys and does not need to be handed over to the central government.

Therefore, the local yamen have the opportunity to increase taxes under the name of ingenuity, and then take advantage of it, although there are new fields in various places every year, but the number of fields reported to the household department in various places is basically inconvenient, and there are naturally many of them.

The taxes collected by the central household department are mainly taxes monopolized by the state, such as salt tax, iron tax, and tea tax, plus some other taxes, so that the annual tax revenue into the treasury is only three or four million taels of silver.

If it is not a last resort, the court of the Ming Dynasty will not increase taxes throughout the country, and the taxes here refer to the field endowment, which is the foundation of the survival of feudal society, and the addition of the endowment is of course the endowment.

For example, this Liao's salary is a national tax levied by the central yamen of the Ming Dynasty.

It is worth mentioning that a considerable number of people in the Ming Dynasty did not have to pay land taxes, such people were royalty, nobles, officials, lifters, students and military households, they owned a large number of fields, such as Li Hongyu now has a lot of tax-free fields under his name.

The world said that the salaries of Ming officials were low, but the emperor of the Ming Dynasty gave them very generous benefits, that is, they had a different number of tax-free fields, which made the officials' lives generally superior.

Although some officials live in poverty, the welfare benefits they enjoy still exist, and the poor life has a lot to do with the personality of the individual.

In addition, the Ming Dynasty's nationwide financial expenditure mainly came from two departments, one was the treasury of the Ming Dynasty's household department, and the other was the emperor's internal funds.

There are two major sources of internal money, one part comes from the allocation of taxes from the household treasury, one is from the emperor's private property, and the other is the mining tax.

Most of the military salaries required for the three major expeditions of Wanli came from the internal funds of the Wanli Emperor, and the treasury of the household department could contribute limited strength.

The so-called penny is difficult to defeat the heroic Han, so how to raise the military salary of Liaodong has become the focus of controversy among the civil and military ministers in the Dongnuan Pavilion.

Officials from the north wanted to levy new taxes in the wealthy Jiangnan prefecture, which was immediately opposed by officials from Jiangnan, saying that the taxes in Jiangnan were already the highest in the Ming Dynasty and should not be raised again, so as not to provoke public resentment.

As a result, after a lot of spittle-filled quarrels, the officials finally reached an agreement to continue to levy the levy this year, and to increase the amount of the tax.

Emperor Wanli was extremely disappointed with this result, and after a long time, these important ministers of the court did not have any constructive opinions at all, but in the end, it turned out to be a land tax levied on the people and the tax amount was raised, which was the last thing he wanted to see as an emperor.

Near noon, Emperor Wanli waved his hand and drove away the ministers in the Dongnuan Pavilion, he was full of anger by these ministers, where did he still have the heart to give them a banquet.

"Ahem......"

After those ministers left, Emperor Wanli took a sip of tea, and then couldn't help coughing, and the attendants on the side hurriedly stepped forward and patted Emperor Wanli lightly on the back, after all, Emperor Wanli was over half a hundred years old, and his health was declining.

"Your Majesty, the grandson of the prince has made a concert, thinking that the champion of the new branch is literary and romantic, and hopes to let the champion of the new branch and the economic bureau wash the horse and teach his classics."

After Emperor Wanli finished coughing, the chamberlain took the teacup, bowed down and said, "The grandson also sent a gift to the emperor." ”

"Oh?" Emperor Wanli couldn't help but feel quite surprised when he heard this, he didn't expect Zhu Youxiao to take a fancy to Li Hongyu, and then asked with great interest, "What did the grandson offer?" ”

The chamberlain waved to the door, and a young chamberlain walked in with a tray and placed it on the table in front of the Wanli Emperor, on which was a model of a three-masted galleon.

"This is ......" Emperor Wanli also saw such a strange-looking ship for the first time, so he asked while looking at it curiously.

"Back to the emperor, according to the people in the East Palace, this is a sea ship of the Xiyi people, which is very suitable for sea travel, and all the countries of Xiyi sail on the ocean with this kind of sea boat."

The chamberlain bowed down and explained, "This ship can be used as a warship for naval warfare, and can transport goods. ”

In the 32nd year of Wanli, two three-masted galleons and two cargo ships led by the Dutchman Wei Malang arrived in Penghu and evacuated after a battle with the Ming army.

In fact, the Ming army had no way to do anything about the three-masted sailing ships, so that the Dutch sea ships cruised along the coast of Fujian and Guangdong, and their huge height and breadth were increasingly recognized by the coastal military and civilians.

Later, the Fujian government reached an agreement with Wei Malang on the "mutual market", which allowed him to lead the ship back with a full load.

Of course, the Wanli Emperor received the report that the Ming army had won a complete victory and the Hongmaoyi fled.

However, the generals of the Ming army who witnessed the battle at that time knew the power of the Dutch artillery, "the first time I saw a wisp of green smoke, these hands were rotten, and there was no trace to be found. ”

"Warships?" A look of surprise appeared on the face of the Wanli Emperor, who felt that the cabin of such a ship was quite large, but the bow was somewhat pointed, which was suitable for transporting goods but not conducive to naval engagement.

"Your Majesty, please take a look." Hearing this, the chamberlain stepped forward, bowed down and pointed to the windows of the gun windows on the hull of the three-masted galleon, and said, "The Westerners put the Hongyi cannon in it, and turn the hull sideways during the battle, so that the Hongyi cannon on one side of the ship can come in handy." ”

"They actually put the Hongyi cannon on the ship?" Emperor Wanli couldn't help but bow his head slightly when he heard this, and then looked at the windows of those cannon windows with a surprised expression, frowning and muttering to himself, "When will I be able to build such a cannon!" ”

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